Support
by nobodD
Summary: With Eli off on dates, it fell onto Nozomi to handle the Student Council Work. When it started to look like too much, one person came to help her. NozoUmi, with a bit of HonoEli on the side. I'm bad at summaries, don't hurt me :x


**Hey guys. It's nobodD again. Here's my second one-shot fic. Another Love Live author had suggested I try writing this pairing, so here's what I came up with. Read & Review if you can. It would greatly be appreciated. If you like you can PM me with any pairings you'd like to see. I'm open to any and would like the practice. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Love Live!**

* * *

It has been about a week since Honoka and Eli had revealed their relationship to the rest of Muse, much to most of the other girls' surprise. Nozomi had started getting suspicious when she noticed Eli becoming more and more distracted during Student Council Work. Then a few days before they revealed their secret, Nozomi saw Honoka and Eli leaving school with their arms linked together.

Nozomi was happy that her best friend had found someone important to her. She even offered to start doing extra work so that Eli could spend more time with Honoka. Everything worked out alright at first.

* * *

"Wait... come again?" Nozomi asked, staring at her best friend in disbelief.

"Like I said," Eli started, grabbing her bag from the table and heading for the door, "Honoka and I have a date planned today, so I have to go."

"Yeah but-"

"It'll just be for today. I'll help tomorrow. Thanks Nozomi!" Eli said, cutting off Nozomi's sentence, and left the Student Council Room.

"..." Nozomi stared at the door, unable to believe what just happened. After a few minutes, she turned to the piles of papers on the desk. There was a lot of extra work that needed to be done today. She had counted on Eli helping a little bit like she did the first few days, but it looks like that wasn't going to happen this time.

Nozomi let out a sigh, and sat down at the desk to start on the work. A few minutes passed before she heard a knock on the door. She looked up, wondering who it could be. She made her way to the door.

To her surprise, Umi was standing outside. "Ah, Umi-chan. What brings you here?"

"I came to help out."

"Help out?"

Umi nodded. "I heard from Honoka that you've been doing more of the work so that she and Eli can spend more time together. So I came by to see if you needed help."

Nozomi looked at her for a moment. "Ah, well since Eli left right away, there's quite a lot of work that needs to be done. Are you ok with that?"

"I don't mind. I would feel bad leaving you with all the works while our best friends are off having fun"

Nozomi considered that response, before cracking a smile. "Well, thank you. Your help is much appreciated. Would you like to come in then?"

Umi nodded, and stepped inside. Nozomi explained what she needed to do, and the two of them went off to work.

* * *

"Thank you for helping out again, Umi-chan," Nozomi said, holding a stack of paperwork against her chest as she walked down the hall towards the Student Council Room alongside Umi.

It's been a few days since then. Eli hadn't shown herself much afterschool to work, so Nozomi greatly appreciated the help from Umi.

"Don't mention it, it's my pleasure," Umi replied, giving a reassuring smile.

"So, I plan to do a lot of extra work today. Are you ready for it?"

Umi nodded, and they entered the Student Council Room and got to work. Indeed, there was a lot of work Nozomi had planned to do today. They worked for about three hours straight. After a point, Umi started feeling tired, and put her head down. Nozomi finished her work a little while later, and eventually found that Umi had fallen asleep.

Nozomi smiled to herself at the sight. She laid her jacket out on a couch that was in the room, and carefully moved Umi onto it. Then she took Umi's jacket and laid it over her like a blanket. She stood up and stepped back, looking down at her sleeping junior with a smile.

"Thanks for your hard work," Nozomi said, before she went back to the table. She quickly finished the work Umi had left, then organized the papers into piles for tomorrow. She returned to Umi, pausing to admire the sight one more time, then started gently shaking her.

"Umi? Umi-chan. It's time to go," Nozomi gently called. After about a minute, Umi stirred.

"Hmm...?" Umi slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes. She looked around before realizing she had fallen asleep in the Student Council Room. She looked back to Nozomi.

"Hello there sleepy-head. All rested up?" Nozomi greeted her playfully.

"I think so.." She sat for moment before remembering about the work. She went to stand but Nozomi rested her hand on Umi's shoulder.

"Don't worry, I took care of the rest."

"Ah.. sorry about that. How long have I been asleep?"

"You were fast asleep by the time I noticed." Nozomi shrugged. "Don't worry about that, it's time to go home."

They grabbed their belongings and walked out of the room. Nozomi locked the door behind them. They stopped by the Faculty Room to return the key and headed out to the front of the school. As they reached the gate, Nozomi turned to Umi. "Stop by tomorrow as well, alright?"

"Of course. See you tomorrow."

"Mhm! See you tomorrow. And thanks for your hard work."

They turned in opposite directions and both headed for their own homes.

* * *

Umi finished writing the last sentence, put her pencil down, and sat back. She put her books away into her bag and crawled into bed. Her body was finally able to relax.

"She saw me sleeping, didn't she?"

Umi's thoughts drifted back to the Student Council Room. Though she seemed to have been deep in sleep, Umi had actually woken up briefly as Nozomi carried her to the couch. Umi didn't open her eyes, but she felt incredibly warm, and somewhat comfortable at the time. Hearing Nozomi thank her the first time in the room, Umi had decided she would allow herself to sleep, and hope Nozomi either didn't notice or didn't say anything about it.

"Tomorrow, huh?"

Umi reached for a piece of paper she had placed earlier on her side table. It was her horoscope for tomorrow. While she normally didn't bother to keep up with these things, she figured it wouldn't hurt this time. She read it over a few times before returning it to her side table.

She looked once at the clock. It was considerably earlier than she usually went to sleep. But as she fell asleep today in the middle of helping Nozomi, she decided to it might pay off to get extra rest tonight. Her thoughts eventually carried her to sleep.

* * *

Nozomi fell onto the welcoming comfort of her bed. The afternoon made her really tired. But as she thought over the day's events, she began to smile.

"Tomorrow huh?"

Things had gone well today, to her surprise. She even got to see a cute side of Umi. Nozomi recapped the day one more time in her head.

A thought popped into her mind, and she got back up, heading to her desk. She pulled out her tarot cards, deciding she could do a quick prediction before she went off to bed. After all, tomorrow was an big day.

* * *

The next school day went by like any other day for Umi. At the end of the day, Honoka was the first of the three to leave. She had got her things together and said bye to Umi and Kotori before heading out. Kotori had gone a little after, saying she was heading to the club room to work on costumes with Nico.

Umi smiled to herself and reached into her bag. _'a hair accessory, and the color red, huh?' _She thought back to last night, reading her horoscope for today. She pulled out the red headband she had placed in her bag last night. She thanked no one in particular that her best friends had left quickly. She spent a minute adjusting the headband, then finally left the class and headed to meet Nozomi.

She quickly made her way to the Student Council Room and found Nozomi standing outside. Nozomi noticed her and smiled as she got closer.

"Good afternoon," Nozomi greeted her.

"Good afternoon. So, what do we have to do today?"

"Actually, nothing."

"Huh?"

"Remember how we did a lot of extra work yesterday? Well, that's because we did today's work yesterday as well."

"Oh. Makes sense."

"Yup! So, how about we walk around the town, for a change?"

"Sure, that sounds nice." Umi replied almost immediately.

Nozomi smiled at the enthusiasm. She then noticed the headband Umi had on. "Ah, that headband fits you well."

"T-thanks," Umi replied, feeling a light blush touch her face. "S-so, shall we go then?"

Nozomi nodded, and they walked out the school and headed towards town.

They got into town and decided they should first have something to eat, so they stopped by a restaurant. Afterwards they had passed by a crepe stand and Nozomi got one for them to share. They next decided to walk around the shops.

"Aww, look at this," Nozomi said, picking up a hairclip with a nice flower design on it.

"It looks nice," Umi agreed.

"Right? Hmm, I wonder.." Nozomi carefully pulled off the headband Umi was wearing.

"Eh? What are you doing?" Umi asked, confused.

Nozomi didn't say anything, and carried on what she was doing. She put down the headband and started fixing the hairclip onto Umi. Umi stood perfectly still, but she felt her heartbeat quicken a little. Nozomi stepped back as she finished.

"There, perfect," she said, and pulled out her phone. She took a picture and showed Umi. "See? It fits you perfectly."

"If you say so." Umi blushed, but not because of the picture. She was a little more preoccupied with Nozomi's comment.

Nozomi smiled and the reaction she got. Umi picked up the matching hairclip from the table.

"Here, you need to try it on too."

Nozomi stood still to let Umi fix it onto her hair. Umi stepped back.

"Lovely," she said, admiring the look.

"Hehe, thanks." Nozomi said.

They removed the clips and returned them to where they got them. Umi picked her headband back up and put it back on. With that they had left the store. Nozomi looked at the time.

"Say, want to come to one more place with me?"

"Sure, but where are we going?"

"You'll see, you'll see." Nozomi smiled again, and grabbed Umi's hand as she led her to their last destination.

After some walking, they had arrived. Umi looked around.

"This is.."

"...the shrine that I help out." Nozomi finished her thought.

She continued to lead her inside to one of the rooms. She picked up one of the outfits and handed it to Umi. Umi held it, but looked at Nozomi as Nozomi walked back to the door.

"Come back out when you're done changing," She said, before she left the room.

Umi stood there for a moment looking at the shrine maiden outfit. _'Is this...'_ she began to think, but she shook her head. She decided that wasn't important, and changed into the outfit.

Nozomi waited outside, admiring the scenery against the sun as it was close to setting. She heard steps behind her and turned around.

"W-well?" Umi asked as she stepped out.

"Just as I thought, you even make a cute shrine maiden."

Umi's blush returned, but she smiled at the comment. She spun in a circle, as if modeling a dress. Nozomi watched and took in as much as she could. The sight of Umi in her outfit against the light from the sun was something else for her.

Umi glanced in the direction of the sun. "It's getting late, huh?"

Nozomi followed her gaze. "Looks like it."

"I'll get changed again."

Umi turned around to head back inside. A thought crossed Nozomi's mind, but she decided against it. _'Not this time. Not this time.'_

Umi came out some time later.

"Thanks for today, Nozomi-chan." She said

"My pleasure. It's the least I can do since you've been helping me so much. Well, let's get you home now."

They began walking in the direction of Umi's house.

* * *

Nozomi walked into the Student Council Room to quite a surprise.

"Hey there, Nozomi." Eli said, sitting at the table with a few piles of papers.

"Eli-chi..." Nozomi said. Her expression darkened a little. "What are you doing here?"

Eli grabbed something from behind the stacks of papers and got up.

"Well, a few things really. First, I wanted to apologize for not showing up here recently."

Nozomi crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, waiting for Eli to continue. Instead, Eli came closer to Nozomi, and open her hand to reveal what she had grabbed to Nozomi. Nozomi's eyes widened.

"Those are..."

"You see," Eli interrupted, "after the first time I left early, Honoka told me that Umi had stopped by to help you out. I decided not to be around for a while, hoping that would give you and Umi more time to get close. It wasn't the best idea, but I didn't like that my best friend was over working herself for me."

Nozomi looked up at Eli, taking in what she was being told. Eli continued.

"Honoka told me how Umi was enjoying helping you and spending time together. Yesterday, we saw you guys in the store trying on the hairclips. After you guys had left, we went in to buy them for you. I promise I'll be around to do my duty again, and I'll even give you some time off. So please, could you ever forgive me for what I did?"

Nozomi stared as she finished taking in what was said. After a while, she smiled.

"Silly Eli-chi, what are best friends for?" And with that, she went to hug Eli, who returned the hug.

After a few moments, there was a knock at the door. Nozomi turned around.

"Ah, right on time," Eli said. "Come in."

Honoka opened the door. She smiled and said, "I brought her."

"Good, good." Eli placed the hairclips into Nozomi's hand and moved her to the door. "Now then, you have something to take care of. Like I said, we'll do all the work for a few days. Have fun!"

Eli got Nozomi out of the room and then closed the door. She was met by Umi.

"Oh, hi Nozomi-chan."

"H-hi there." Nozomi was still a little flustered from everything happening so quickly.

"Honoka told me about what they've been doing. Did you hear?"

"Yeah, Eli just told me. Explains a lot, really"

Umi nodded. They stood in silence for a minute, then Nozomi decided to break the silence.

"Well, they did start this. Guess we should finish it."

Umi looked at Nozomi confused. Nozomi took one of the hairclips, and again, fixed it onto Umi's hair for her. She stepped back, then held her hand out with the other hairclip.

"Umi, I love you. Would you like to go out with me?"

Umi just looked at first. Then she smiled and took the hairclip. She fixed it for Nozomi.

"If you're fine with a girl like me, then yes, I would love to go out with you."

Nozomi returned Umi's smile, and they sealed the deal with a kiss.

* * *

Honoka stepped away from the door. She smiled at Eli and gave a thumbs up.

"Mission Accomplished."

Eli smiled. "That's a relief. Now, come here, we have a lot of work to do."

"Aww..."

Honoka pouted, but she hurriedly took a seat next to Eli. Eli messed with Honoka's hair a little in amusement. They shared a kiss and got to work.


End file.
